North to Alaska!

[AKMommaF8]

I just found this thread...my husband & youngest 3 children have lived here in AK for 12 yrs. We came up with the Alr Force, lived on Elmendorf (now JBER) for 2 yes, then moved to Palmer. I started out w chickens, now raise 3 breeds of duck & 2 breeds of geese. I only have 4 chickens...1 from my original 20, one that was the 3rd bird I ever hatched, & 2 younger, actively laying hens.

 

[Member 482121]

My wife and I lived in Kodiak, Alaska for, 29 years. Alaska is a great place to live and raise children--if you make enough money. We did, but when we retired we could not maintain our way of life on two monthly pension checks (we had both been public school teachers). We would have liked to stay, but we could not have afforded it. So we sold our home and with the proceeds of the sale we bought 44 acres, a mobile home and a large garage/shop in Alabama. And there was enough money left to move most of our stuff, a car, and an Argo to Alabama and for a 10-grand down payment on a new F150. And our pensions now allow us to live comfortably in Alabama, where the cost of living is 45-50% less than in Kodiak.
Do I miss Kodiak? Yes and no. I miss the fishing, the duck hunting (deer hunting is much better here, and there are wild turkeys, too), but I don't miss the long, dark winters, the snow, the icy road, and the rain and drizzle, and the high prices of everything, from gas, to groceries, to property taxes, to medical care.
Where I live in Alabama is Eden, though even this Eden has its serpent: tornadoes. Fortunately, in the eight years we have spent here so far we have been grazed by a small one (but there is no such thing as a "small" tornado--if your home, especially a mobile home, takes a direct hit by one) and another one (a stronger one) missed us by a mile.
Going back to chickens, you are lucky the zoning regulations where you live allow you to have them. In Kodiak City and the surrounding residential areas you can't have chickens or livestock. Now that we live in rural Alabama we have chickens and a horse.

 

[AKMommaF8]

My wife and I lived in Kodiak, Alaska for, 29 years. Alaska is a great place to live and raise children--if you make enough money. We did, but when we retired we could not maintain our way of life on two monthly pension checks (we had both been public school teachers). We would have liked to stay, but we could not have afforded it. So we sold our home and with the proceeds of the sale we bought 44 acres, a mobile home and a large garage/shop in Alabama. And there was enough money left to move most of our stuff, a car, and an Argo to Alabama and for a 10-grand down payment on a new F150. And our pensions now allow us to live comfortably in Alabama, where the cost of living is 45-50% less than in Kodiak.
Do I miss Kodiak? Yes and no. I miss the fishing, the duck hunting (deer hunting is much better here, and there are wild turkeys, too), but I don't miss the long, dark winters, the snow, the icy road, and the rain and drizzle, and the high prices of everything, from gas, to groceries, to property taxes, to medical care.
Where I live in Alabama is Eden, though even this Eden has its serpent: tornadoes. Fortunately, in the eight years we have spent here so far we have been grazed by a small one (but there is no such thing as a "small" tornado--if your home, especially a mobile home, takes a direct hit by one) and another one (a stronger one) missed us by a mile.
Going back to chickens, you are lucky the zoning regulations where you live allow you to have them. In Kodiak City and the surrounding residential areas you can't have chickens or livestock. Now that we live in rural Alabama we have chickens and a horse.

I don't know how you endure the humidity! Goodness, that's worse than snow! We've lived in Fl & Japan, so we have had to survive in those places, but it doesn't agree with us! I'm glad there ARE folks that can handle it, & enjoy it.

My husband retired here after 22 yrs with the Air Force & is now working at an aviation tank farm. He's loving the job and the commute to South Anchorage, so we're good. We have no zoning laws where we live, as its agricultural land, although the 3 yo subdivision () across the road has tons! I grew up in NE PA so I'm used to the snow & love it. I love the dark during the winter, & have found the extra long hours of light was what I had to adjust to. We have 2 miniature horses, had raised Nigerian Dwarf goats but now only have one wether (birds are easier!), 2 barn cats, a house cat & 2 dogs. I will never willingly leave Alaska. Visiting places, yes, that's fun, but living outside of AK? Nope, not me!
P.S. Tornadoes scare me more than earthquakes, btw!

 

[Member 482121]

Tornadoes scare me more than earthquakes, too! I bought an above-the-ground tornado shelter, but the worst thing is the thought of losing all my prized possessions, mementoes, photographs, books, "toys," all the dear things accumulated in a (long) lifetime, and emerging from the shelter to find everything destroyed or scattered in a radius of five miles, with only the clothes on my back and the few items stashed permanently in the shelter. Besides, nothing guarantees that we'll have the time to grab our two cats and get into the shelter before being hit by a killer twister. Not all tornadoes are detected by the doppler radar and warnings issued in a timely manner. At times we feel a bit stupid getting into the shelter under a tornado watch before a warning is issued, but I guess I'd feel even more stupid in the last seconds of life if we were caught by a tornado outside a shelter we have spent a lot of money on...

 

[AKMommaF8]

I think you're smart getting in the shelter...I'd probably LIVE in it!

 

[Member 482121]

I think you're smart getting in the shelter...I'd probably LIVE in it!

12' x 8', much of which taken up by an inflatable bed, two chairs, shelves with supplies and "possibles," an air conditioner/dehumidifier, a small electric heater, and a porta-potty.

 

[Alaskan]

12' x 8', much of which taken up by an inflatable bed, two chairs, shelves with supplies and "possibles," an air conditioner/dehumidifier, a small electric heater, and a porta-potty.

Well... bigger than some Alaskan cabins... but of course those have an outhouse.....

I never have lived in a tornado place... hurricanes, yes... but those are not so bad.

 

[xXChickenTenderXx]

Hey! It is my first winter in Alaska owning chickens...

 

[Alaskan]

Hey! It is my first winter in Alaska owning chickens...

Howdy and welcome.

But... Anchorage Alaska..... or Fairbanks.... or Sitka?

Way different temps.

 

[907poultry]

Hello, Yukon mouth region, northern southeast, southcentral. I was born and raised here, so were my parents and their parents, (it goes way back both are 1/2). They never intended on raising a poultry obsessed kid, and now I’ve gone off and chased my obsession. I do quite like southeast, the forest is nice and I enjoy the clouds and rain (the ducks do too). Kodiak is an amazing place, I wish to live there if only for a brief while, it’s like mixing Circle with Sitka, real funny looking place. I don’t ever see myself moving to my mother’s village, flat, and it floods real bad in the spring (as kids you could paddle around In a bathtub or sled). Though I do long for my father’s if they don’t log it all away. I’m in the valley now, there’s a wide variety of trees here, birch, cottonwood, aspen, willow, alder, white spruce, black spruce… nice seasons, it isn’t like the interior. Glad it isn’t frying pan hot in the summer, not Hell-just-froze-over cold in the winters. Oh- and I need not worry about getting snowed in here. Palmer, Houston, Wasilla, Point Mac, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Homer, Seward, Whittier, Soldotna, Eureka, Eklutna, and circle can all be driven to.
I am curious about the lower 48, and the thing that brings me down there might just be emus- but I can’t see myself going down. Anybody here move down? It looks stuffy, and I can’t even handle Anchorage. Maybe it isn’t for me.